IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v624y2009i1p214-233.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Competing Scenarios for European Fathers: Applying Sen's Capabilities and Agency Framework to Work—Family Balance

Author

Listed:
  • Barbara Hobson

    (Stockholm University)

  • Susanne Fahlén

Abstract

European policy and discourse create crosscurrents for fathers: the promotion of work-family balance (WFB) and more involved fathering versus work-focused competitiveness and productivity goals in globalized economies. Using Amartya Sen's capabilities and agency paradigm, the authors provide a theoretical framework for analyzing agency inequalities in WFB: the disjuncture between norms/values and practices and between policies and fathers' capabilities to exercise them. The authors apply the capability framework to comparative European data considering working times and desired working times, flexibility and autonomy in employment, as well as perceptions of economic security and job security. The authors find differences in fathers' capabilities and agency for WFB across countries representing different welfare regime configurations, most strikingly between old and new EU member states. The majority of the European fathers wanted to reduce working hours substantially despite possible reductions in pay, underscoring the value of the capabilities framework for understanding potential freedoms for achieving WFB.

Suggested Citation

  • Barbara Hobson & Susanne Fahlén, 2009. "Competing Scenarios for European Fathers: Applying Sen's Capabilities and Agency Framework to Work—Family Balance," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 624(1), pages 214-233, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:624:y:2009:i:1:p:214-233
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716209334435
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716209334435
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0002716209334435?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vegard Iversen, 2003. "Intra-Household Inequality: A Challenge For The Capability Approach?," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2-3), pages 93-115.
    2. Bina Agarwal & Jane Humphries & Ingrid Robeyns, 2003. "Exploring The Challenges Of Amartya Sen'S Work And Ideas: An Introduction," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2-3), pages 3-12.
    3. Walter Korpi, 2000. "Faces of Inequality: Gender, Class and Patterns of Inequalities in Different Types of Welfare States," LIS Working papers 224, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Heejung Chung & Hyojin Seo, 2024. "Flexibility Stigma Across Europe: How National Contexts can Shift the Extent to which Flexible Workers are Stigmatised," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 174(3), pages 945-965, September.
    2. Angelo Lorenti & Jessica Nisén & Letizia Mencarini & Mikko Myrskylä, 2023. "Gendered parenthood-employment gaps in midlife: a demographic perspective across three different welfare systems," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2023-013, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    3. Claudiu George Bocean & Luminita Popescu & Anca Antoaneta Varzaru & Costin Daniel Avram & Anica Iancu, 2023. "Work-Life Balance and Employee Satisfaction during COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-15, July.
    4. Heejung Chung & Hyojin Seo & Holly Birkett & Sarah Forbes, 2022. "Working from Home and the Division of Childcare and Housework among Dual-Earner Parents during the Pandemic in the UK," Merits, MDPI, vol. 2(4), pages 1-23, October.
    5. Lorenti, Angelo & Jessica, Nisen & Mencarini, Letizia & Myrskylä, Mikko, 2023. "Gendered parenthood-employment gaps in midlife: a demographic perspective across three different welfare systems," SocArXiv gmqd9, Center for Open Science.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Svenja G rtner, 2013. "German Stagnation vs. Swedish Progression: Gender Wage Gaps in Comparison, 1960-2006," LIS Working papers 586, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    2. Julie Vinck & Idunn Brekke, 2019. "Gender and education inequalities in parental employment when having a young child with increased care needs: Belgium and Norway compared," Working Papers 1904, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    3. Mahmud Rice, James & Goodin, Robert E. & Parpo, Antti, 2006. "The Temporal Welfare State: A Crossnational Comparison," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(3), pages 195-228, December.
    4. Anna Baranowska-Rataj & Anna Matysiak, 2016. "The Causal Effects of the Number of Children on Female Employment - Do European Institutional and Gender Conditions Matter?," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 343-367, September.
    5. Bastos, Amélia & Casaca, Sara F. & Nunes, Francisco & Pereirinha, José, 2009. "Women and poverty: A gender-sensitive approach," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 764-778, October.
    6. Duvander, Ann-Zofie & Ferrarini, Tommy & Thalberg, Sara, 2005. "Swedish parental leave and gender equality - Achievements and reform challenges in a European perspective," Arbetsrapport 2005:11, Institute for Futures Studies.
    7. Guo, Jing & Gilbert, Neil, 2014. "Public attitudes toward government responsibility for child care: The impact of individual characteristics and welfare regimes," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 82-89.
    8. Alesina, Alberto & Giuliano, Paola, 2014. "Family Ties," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 4, pages 177-215, Elsevier.
    9. Maddox, Bryan, 2007. "Worlds Apart? Ethnographic Reflections on "Effective Literacy" and Intrahousehold Externalities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 532-541, March.
    10. COOKE Lynn Prince, 2000. "Gender Agency at the Intersection of State, Market and Family: Changes in Fertility and Maternal Labor Supply in Eight Countries," IRISS Working Paper Series 2000-09, IRISS at CEPS/INSTEAD.
    11. Nadia Khamis & Luis Ayuso, 2022. "Female Breadwinner: More Egalitarian Couples? An International Comparison," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 534-545, September.
    12. Valentina Rivera & Francisca Castro, 2021. "Between Social Protests and a Global Pandemic: Working Transitions under the Economic Effects of COVID-19," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-21, April.
    13. Fernandez, Antonia & Kambhampati, Uma S., 2017. "Shared agency: The dominant spouse’s impact on education expenditure," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 182-197.
    14. Gerda Neyer & Trude Lappegård & Daniele Vignoli, 2013. "Gender Equality and Fertility: Which Equality Matters?," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 29(3), pages 245-272, August.
    15. Anne-Cathérine Guio & Karel Van den Bosch, 2020. "Deprivation of Women and Men Living in a Couple: Sharing or Unequal Division?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 66(4), pages 958-984, December.
    16. Susanne Fahlén, 2016. "Equality at home - A question of career? Housework, norms, and policies in a European comparative perspective," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 35(48), pages 1411-1440.
    17. Sunil Kumar & Renuka Mahadevan, 2008. "Construction of An Adult Equivalence Index to Measure Intra-household Inequality and Poverty: Case Study," Discussion Papers Series 363, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    18. Fernandez, Antonia & Della Giusta, Marina & Kambhampati, Uma S., 2015. "The Intrinsic Value of Agency: The Case of Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 92-107.
    19. Giuliano, Paola, 2017. "Gender: An Historical Perspective," CEPR Discussion Papers 12183, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Varvarigos, Dimitrios, 2021. "Upstream intergenerational transfers in economic development: The role of family ties and their cultural transmission," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:624:y:2009:i:1:p:214-233. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.